Meese was born in Oakland, California, the eldest of four sons born to Leone (née Feldman) and Edwin Meese, Jr.[5] He was raised in a practicing Lutheran family, of German descent.[6][7] His father was an Oakland city government official, president of the Zion Lutheran Church, and served 24 years in the non-partisan office of Treasurer of Alameda County.

At age 10, Meese published along with his brothers a mimeographed neighborhood newspaper, the Weekly Herald, and used the proceeds to buy a War Bond. The young Meese also rode a bicycle on a paper route and worked in a drugstore. At Oakland High School, Meese was involved in the Junior State of America and led his high school debate team to statewide championships. He was recognized as valedictorian, class of 1949.[8]

Meese returned to California, obtaining a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a state Moot Court champion. He graduated in 1958 and accepted a position with the district attorney's office of Alameda County as a law clerk. While there, he worked under District Attorney J. Frank Coakley. He also worked with future DA D. Lowell Jensen. Jensen was engaged in developing a case-management software program known as Dalite.[9] Meese prosecuted felony cases while maintaining a private practice on nights and weekends, focusing on civil law. During this service, he first drew the attention of Republican State Senator Donald Grunsky, who would later recommend him to governor-elect Ronald Reagan.

In 1959 he married high school sweetheart Ursula Herrick, daughter of Oakland's postmaster.[8]

Meese joined Ronald Reagan's staff in 1967. He served as legal affairs secretary from 1967–1968 and as executive assistant and chief of staff to Governor Reagan from 1969 through 1974. Despite his later well-known fondness for Reagan, Meese was initially reluctant to accept the appointment because he thought of himself as non-partisan. "I was not particularly interested," Meese said.[8] Meese was known for his "unique ability" to explain complex ideas to Reagan in a way that often mirrored Reagan's own speaking style and mannerisms. Because of this, Reagan biographer Lou Cannon referred to Meese as "Reagan's geographer."[10]

After being named Reagan's chief of staff, Meese convinced his predecessor's deputy, Mike Deaver, to stay on with him, beginning a partnership that would last more than two decades.[11] For his role in Reagan's office, Meese earned reluctant praise from across the aisle. Bob Moretti, a Democrat and former Democratic Speaker of the Assembly, said, "Were I in the governor's seat, I would want someone like [Ed Meese] on my side." [12]

As Reagan's chief of staff, Meese was instrumental in the decision to crack down on student protesters at People's Park in Berkeley, California, on May 15, 1969. Meese was widely criticized for escalating the official response to the People's Park protest, during which law enforcement officers killed one student protestor and injured hundreds of others, including bystanders. Meese advised Reagan to declare a state of emergency in Berkeley, contrary to the recommendation of the Berkeley City Council. This resulted in a two-week occupation of People's Park by National Guard troops.

The first governor to turn to Meese for advice on riot control was Democrat Edmund (Pat) Brown, who first telephoned Meese seeking advice on how to best handle the situation. "I told him," Meese said, "that the people in that building should be arrested and taken out of there. I told him that if they were allowed to stay, there would be another mob scene, even bigger, the next day." Meese and Deputy District Attorney Lowell Jensen later served as co-counsels in the trial of Berkeley demonstrators. Meese was recognized as one of five "Outstanding Young Men of California" by the California Junior Chamber of Commerce for his role in countering the Berkeley demonstrators.[8] Meese's role in quelling the riots at UC Berkeley have been identified by critics and supporters as an example of a conservative law-enforcement philosophy at work.[13]

After receiving a grant from the Sarah Scaife Foundation, Meese developed what he called "a plan for a law school center for criminal justice policy and management." The plan was accepted by The University of San Diego, a private Catholic school.[8] From the fall of 1977 through January 1981, Meese served as professor of law at USD, where he also directed the Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Management.[14] During the same time, Meese served as vice chairman of California's Organized Crime Control Commission and participated in the California Bar Association's criminal law section.[8]

At the advice of Meese, Reagan allowed his campaign to secretly establish a transition office to avoid difficulties similar to those faced by the Nixon administration in their own transition. "Ed had an uncanny ability to look down the road," said Pen James, Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel. Meese's presidential transition team employed more than 1,000 individuals, with 311 being paid in federal funds, 331 working for a "token" $1, and the rest serving as volunteers. When accounting for inflation, the Reagan transition team spent less money than the Carter transition team, $1.75 million versus $1.78 million.[8]

On November 17, 1980, Meese and James Baker held a meeting to divide their list of White House responsibilities, since both saw the potential for future conflict due to their positions being somewhat similar in nature. The one-page memorandum listed Meese's responsibilities as:

"Counselor to the President for Policy (with cabinet rank);

member Super Cabinet Executive Committee (in absence of The President and V-P preside over meetings);

participate as a principal in all meetings of full Cabinet;

coordination and supervision of responsibilities of the Secretary to the Cabinet; *coordination and supervision of work of the Domestic Policy Studies and the National Security Council;

with Baker coordination and supervision of work of OMB, CEA, CEQ, Trade Rep and S&T; *participation as principal in all policy group meetings;

Meese became Counselor to the President, who appointed him as a member of both his Cabinet and the National Security Council from 1981 to 1985. On Monday, September 14, 1981, Meese chaired the first White House discussion of what would become Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), i.e. missile defense, program.[8]

Meese served as a liaison to the conservative evangelical community, arranging for meetings between social conservative leaders and the president. Meese was lauded by social conservatives for his address to the Congress on the Bible in March 1982, when he said, "Someone has estimated that throughout the course of history man has adopted over four billion laws. It seems to me, with all that effort, we haven't improved one iota on the Ten Commandments."[16]

Near the end of Reagan's presidency, Meese's involvement in the Iran-Contra affair as a "counselor" and "friend" to Reagan was scrutinized by the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, which stated in its official report that Meese's knowledge of the 1985 HAWK transaction "raised serious legal questions."[17]

Meese was considered a powerful and influential figure inside the White House. Said former Reagan advisor and journalist David Gergen, "He's a tremendously influential and highly valued adviser to the President who advises on issues all across the board. He's one of the men who has known [the President] so long and so well he's become almost an alter ego of Ronald Reagan."[8]

Meese created a "storm of controversy" in December 1983 after his responses to questions about hunger in America. In response to a question about balancing spending cuts against the need to feed hungry children, he said that he hadn't seen "authoritative" evidence that children in America were going hungry and that some of the allegations of this "are purely political." When asked about soup kitchens he said that "some people are going to soup kitchens voluntarily... I know we've had considerable information that people go to soup kitchens because the food is free and that that's easier than paying for it." Democratic leaders and social welfare activists called his comments "disgraceful", "an outrage", "unkind and mean-spirited" and "absolutely ridiculous." Tip O'Neill, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, compared Meese to Ebenezer Scrooge.[18][19] Shortly after, Meese offered a tongue-in-cheek defense of Scrooge, saying that he "had his faults, but he wasn't unfair to anyone" and that he suffered from "a bad press".[20][21][21][22]

During the 1980s, James McKay, an independent prosecutor, was appointed to investigate alleged financial improprieties by Meese while he was attorney general. As part of this investigation, McKay looked into Meese's involvement in a Bechtel pipeline deal in the Middle East.[23] The pipeline was to extend from Iraq to Jordan and was negotiated by Meese, Shimon Peres, Bruce Rappaport, Robert C. McFarlane, and others. Although he was not prosecuted, Meese ultimately resigned. Prior to his departure, several top Justice Department officials resigned in protest of what they and others viewed as improper acts by the attorney general.[24]

Meese became Attorney General in February 1985, holding this office until August, 1988, when he resigned due to his role in the Wedtech scandal.[25] The report of special prosecutor James McKay cleared Meese of criminal wrongdoing, but criticized him for ethical lapses, especially regarding bribes to Israel not to attack an Iraqi oil pipeline which benefited associates of the Attorney General. Meese described this as 'full vindication.'[26] It was during this tenure that D. Lowell Jensen, Meese's former superior at the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, served as his Deputy Attorney General and thus the second-ranking official in the Justice Department.[9] Reagan publicly voiced support for Meese in his role as Attorney General, stating during a press conference, "If Ed Meese is not a good man, there are no good men" in response to questions about his actions at the Justice Department.[27]

On May 21, 1984, Reagan announced his intention to appoint the Attorney General to study the effect of pornography on society.[28] The Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, often called the Meese report, convened in the spring of 1985 and published its findings in July 1986. The Meese Report advised that pornography was in varying degrees harmful.[29]

As Attorney General, Meese chaired the National Drug Policy Board, which coordinated with Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No," national anti-drug educational campaign. One of Meese's innovations was to seek the cooperation of drug-producing countries.

However, "One of our most effective weapons against drug traffickers," Meese wrote in his autobiography, "was to confiscate the assets of their criminal activity, such as expensive autos, yachts, businesses, and homes... To make this technique even more effective, we shared the proceeds with cooperating local law enforcement agencies to enhance their drug-fighting activities".[30]

Meese was well known for his opposition to the Miranda Warning ruling by the Supreme Court requiring a suspect's rights to be read to him before he is questioned by authorities.[31]

U.S News & World Report: You criticize the Miranda ruling, which gives suspects the right to have a lawyer present before police questioning. Shouldn't people, who may be innocent, have such protection?

Meese: Suspects who are innocent of a crime should. But the thing is, you don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime. That's contradictory. If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect.[31]

Meese serves on the boards of several institutions. Meese has held the Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation since 1988, when he joined the think tank. This position is the only policy chair in the United States officially named for the 40th president.[14][33] In addition to this role, he is also chairman of Heritage's Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, founded in 2001 to educate government officials, the media and the public about the Constitution, legal principles and their impact on public policy.[33]

For his lifetime of service and leadership, Meese was named the first-ever Honorary Reagan Fellow of Eureka College (Eureka, Illinois) at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. in 2008. Recognizing Meese as a model for young people, the honor was given on behalf of the Reagan Fellows program President Ronald Reagan established at his own alma mater in 1982. Meese is a charter member of the Ronald W. Reagan Society of Eureka College and a featured speaker at the "Reagan and the Midwest" academic conference held on campus to launch the Reagan Centennial in 2011.